Solly's friend on board to leave Coles Myer

Page Tools

Colourful rag trader and former Coles Myer chairman Solomon Lew has lost his last ally inside Australia's biggest retailer.

Prominent Melbourne tax lawyer and lobbyist Mark Leibler yesterday announced he would not stand for re-election to the Coles board at its annual general meeting in November.

Nearly a decade after he was appointed a director and two years after he survived a bitterly contested election that saw his friend Mr Lew ousted from the board, Mr Leibler is moving on.

Coles chairman Rick Allert said Mr Leibler had made an "outstanding contribution" to the company, but his departure could also be viewed as the end of one of the company's less savoury chapters.

Before the company's 2002 annual meeting, Mr Lew - who still owns 5.7 per cent of Coles stock and is a critic of chief executive John Fletcher - took his campaign to retain his board seat into the public domain by placing advertisements in major newspapers promoting his candidacy.

According to Mr Allert, Mr Fletcher had expressed reservations about Mr Lew's $72 million worth of related-party dealings with Coles Myer and the Lew family's financial involvement with rival retailers including Witchery, NineWest and FCUK. Mr Lew had pledged to sever all links with the suppliers.

In the end, Mr Lew lost his seat while Mr Leibler was allowed to keep his.

But there was no reference to that sordid history in yesterday's press release.

"Mark has advised me he has reached this decision having accepted another significant role which would make it difficult for him to devote sufficient time to Coles Myer in the future," Mr Allert said.

The 59-year-old Mr Leibler, who is the senior partner at solicitors Arnold Bloch Leibler, was coy about any new appointments, declining even to say when an announcement about any new job might be made.

"I really cannot say at this stage," he said.

He is also a director of Reconciliation Australia Ltd, established by the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation.